Pearl S. Buck: Her Life and Role as a Multicultural Mediator, A Talk by Dr. Kang Liao
Saturday, June 13, 2020
3:00 pm—5:00 pm
Zoom online event: Register in advance to receive join details and confirmation.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYuceqpqjIjEtV-91x4BaOQQkO4y9tjBq2W
The public is invited. Free event.
Media:
Downloadable flyer: https://peacecentral.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/kang-liao-6-13-20-flyer.pdf
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/250335292861341/
About the Event:
Having grown up among the Chinese people, writer Pearl S. Buck, author of The Good Earth, developed a deep understanding of China’s history, culture, language, and literature. Her honest and vivid portrayal of peasant farmers and their family life shattered the distorted image of China held by the West. Her biographies of her missionary parents explore both the failures and successes of Christian missionary efforts in China. The focus of her novel “Peony” was a Jewish family in Kaifeng, a metropolitan city in the heart of China. It deals with the Jewish assimilation into the Chinese race and culture. Dr. Kang Liao will use that unprecedented phenomenon to shed some light on the worsening tendency, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, to regard the Chinese with “otherness”.
Dr. Kang Liao, one of China’s leading Pearl S. Buck scholars, will discuss her unique role in promoting cross-cultural exchange and reconciliation between China and the West. Dr. Liao has been teaching English-to-Chinese translation at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey since 1999. He is an associate professor teaching Chinese at Defense Language Institute in Monterey and has twice won the Teaching Excellence Award there. He has published many essays in the field of comparative culture and linguistics and is the author of Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Bridge across the Pacific – a work that brings to light Buck’s role in ushering in a new age of multiculturalism. Buck’s literary works changed the image of the Chinese people in the American mind, ultimately led to the 1943 repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Sponsors:
Monterey Peace and Justice Center, Peace Coalition of Monterey County
Monterey Peace and Justice Center’s mission is to inspire and mobilize the people of Monterey County to cultivate peace, social justice, nonviolence, democracy, and environmental sustainability in our community and the world through education and advocacy.
Contact Catherine Crockett, monterypeaceandjustice@gmail.com
Website: https://peacecentral.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/montereypeaceandjusticecenter/
Peace Coalition of Monterey County (PCMC): Founded in 1991 to promote nonviolent resolutions in world conflicts and advocate for policies that will create a more peaceful world.
Contact PCMC Chairs: Sidney Ramsden Scott sramsdenscott@hotmail.com
Website: http://peacemonterey.org/
